Jeffrey Fontaine

I'm almost done hiding my full C5 front setup behind 92 anniversary rims, but have 2 questions. UPDATE, SEE POST #4
1) Is there anywhere to get the banjo bolts? AZ & AAP don't have them, and $6 EA @ the dealership seems steep.
2) I didn't clamp the brake hose when I removed the caliper, so i lost a lot of fluid. Looking at the MC, it didn't drain fully so is there anything special I will need to do to bleed them? Gravity, pumping, or vacuum?

In the future, what is suitable to clamp the hose, vice-grips?

Thanks
Jeff

ebmiller88

iTrader: (7)

I have them in the shop, both good used ones and new. If you didn't drain the master, then refill and bleed as usual. If you have rubber hoses, you can clamp the hose with vice grips but I wouldn't do it directly on the hose, use wood or something on the line to keep it from getting cut by the jaws.

Ed

Jeffrey Fontaine

I'm thinking maybe a paint stirring stick sounds about right, thanks.

Sent you a PM.

Jeffrey Fontaine

Finally finished the swap, bled (and bled), and got a few miles on the setup. Quick recap:

Front
12.75" C5 rotors
C5 calipers - Baer's 13" track kit says .100" minimum clearance. I ground down the fins and radiuses on edge VERY slightly to give closer to .125 since the car sees a lot of street driving, including time on sandy roads in spring.
Raybestos pads
New stock length hoses, zip tied to the struts
16" 91/92 "Anniversary" wheels

Rear
Stock except 7/8" wheel cylinders (85 S10 manual brakes)
Cut/reflared rear lines from metric to SAE

I don't have anyone to help me (I tend to work on the car when everyone else is sleeping), so I vacuum bled, though my vacuum pump doesn't impress me. I'm not sure what my fr/rr bias is, but I have the following observations:

1) The pedal seems lower, and softer than before. I would assume this means I still have air in the lines, but I know the fronts came out w/ no bubbles and the rears I think was only from the bleeder... How many quarts is reasonable to go through?
2) When I jack up the rearend, even w/ the pedal to the floor, the rear tires still turn (slowly) in reverse gear. I assume that means more bleeding too? Side note - when in neutral, the tires still turn w/ no brake???
3) I did about 10-15 stops from 40-10mph to bed the front linings (kept the rears that were there, just changed WC's). Then, I did one haul down from about 60mph, and all I can say is WOW! The difference in character was tremendous (I also changed to Bilstein fronts, the original stock ones were shot!).

I'm not sure if there is more air in the system, or if the soft/low pedal is a function of the piston/bore sizes I have... The front discs and rear drums were both hot/warm to the touch, but the symptoms above lead me to believe the rear still needs more attention.

fast82z

iTrader: (1)

I'd try swaping in an adjustable proportioning valve and normal brake bleeding. I just put LS1 brakes on mine all the way around, and currently I have equal line pressure going to all tires. I don't know if it's correct yet as far as locking up the rear tires before the fronts, but I can tell you these brakes RULE over the stockers especially since I'm using a manual master cylinder. With the bleeding, I used less than a quart to get nice new fluid at all corners.

Jeffrey Fontaine

I don't want to jump to an adjustable PV if I don't have to. This car is 100% street, and don't want to mess it up in the rain b/c the adjustment is off. During the 60-0 test (roughly), neither front nor rear tires locked up.

I went through 2 quarts. After the first 1 (used to bench bleed master and all four corners, which were run mostly dry), I had new fluid all around but the pedal still seemed low. So I did some more. I think I might try to have my wife help me this time and do a normal bleed instead of the vacuum and see what happens. I've heard of some MC's having "unfinished" bores past a certain point, I wonder if I overextended it? It was fine before, if anything the pedal was hard...

jstoltz

iTrader: (16)

I would gravity bleed them then check again.

Jeffrey Fontaine

To gravity bleed, just remove the cap, crack open the bleeder screws, put a tube on each one into a bottle w/ the bottom of the tube covered, then just wait (and keep the MC from running empty)? About how long does this take?

jstoltz

iTrader: (16)

you got it you can do all of them at once normally around 20 minutes for the whole deal.

stielow775

Do you have any pictures of where you ground down the caliper?


How much better is the braking with the c5's? Did it make a huge diffrence?

How much did it push out the wheels?


Matt